With a fist full of flyers and door hangers, I smiled at the NEST doorbell in case anyone was looking. A young woman with a chubby toddler in her arms answered the door. I immediately went into my spiel. “Hi, Laura McKenna. I’m running for Board of Education this November,” and handed her my highly photoshopped campaign flyer.

After a quick glance at the flyer, she said, “I’m trying to get him to poop.” 

The toddler looked at me and blinked. His blink said, “there is absolutely no way that I’m going to poop on that scary potty. I’m going to keep it all inside me for three days.” 

Last spring, I decided to do something totally new, something scary. I decided to run for office in my town. It’s been a MASSIVE learning curve. I’ve learned about the cost of lawn signs (errors were made here), the steps needed to get Facebook to run political ads, the absolutely necessary campaign finance forms, the best way to give a three minute speech, and more. Like Madonna, I like to reinvent myself, so here I am at the tail end of my 50s, doing something totally new.

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